Teaching resources

Interviewing is a frequently used method in social research with its suitability being entirely dependent on the particular research question. Qualitative interviewing is generally distinguished from questionnaire-based interviewing, even if the form of communication, such as face-to face conversation, may be the same.

This teaching resource incorporates a selection of the qualitative material collected during the course of the Peter Townsend’s 1950s Last Refuge study, which was a major investigation of long-stay institutional care for old people in Britain.

This resource showcases two archived collections which have used a psychosocial method: Hollway and Jefferson’s Gender Difference, Anxiety and the Fear of Crime and Hollway’s Becoming a Mother. The resource includes a range of activities that can be used in the classroom or as self-paced learning activities.

These materials have been created for teaching sociology with archived data. They include a tutor's resource, tutor's feedback sheets for marking, as well as the project report pages and case study. They can be adapted as needed.

The guide includes information on how to access the data in the 1970 British Cohiort STudy (BCS), an introduction to the established set of survey questions that measures psychological distress - the Malaise Inventory - and a number of data analysis exercises using SPSS.

The Pioneers of Qualitative Research resource is a rich, dynamic and expanding resource for the social sciences. It includes in-depth life-story interviews with 34 pioneers of British social research, including eminent scholars such as Peter Townsend and Ann Oakley.